Warhammer 40k: The Struggle
by MarxistFIN
Summary: During the Age of Strife, human colonies became isolated from each other as a result of large scale warp storms that raged across the galaxy. Many colonies descended into anarchy after being sacked by warpspawn, others through prolonged isolation resulting in widespread resource scarcities. But, there were also some that prevailed through these trying times, this is their story.
1. Chapter 1

**Warhammer 40k: The Struggle**

 **A/N: A friend of mine who's a big Warhammer fan said after seeing my other work that I should totally write a 40k fic and I took his advice, so here it is: my first attempt at making a Warhammer fanfic.**

 **Warning: This story contains VERY OP OC ARMY ACTION, nerd rage is guaranteed so if you get easily offended by the Imperium getting its ass kicked by upstarts… Leave immediately before the amount of heresy causes your brain to melt.**

 **This story was Beta-read by Kalmalehto.**

 **Ch1 – A History Rewritten**

The following were taken from the journals of the Agri-World of Zalamis' planetary governor Arceus Septicus:

971st Year of the 23rd Millennium, 9th Day of the 2nd Month

" _The expanding storm that surrounds the space around the planet has yet to show any signs of slowing down, none of our ships can pass through it lest they risk being lost in the warp forever. I fear that we might end up isolated from the rest of Federation space longer than expected._

 _Last year's harvest was quite sizable and it will end up rotting if we can't ship it off-world. The good side in all of this at least is that none of our people will go hungry for the next several years, but the Colonial Ministry will want answers after they realize that the grain is not coming, I have no doubt about it."_

4th Day of the 3rd Month

" _One of our farm workers dug up something… unusual today._

 _The engineers are still studying it, we have yet to find out fully what it is, it seems to be shaped similar to an ancient pistol but it doesn't have any clear ammunition storage like those things usually have, at first glance it is just a mess of wires and electronics but after a more in-depth look the research team found that it held within it an immense power._

 _The amount of power this… thing had was comparable to that the combined energy output of multiple large suns... In a year._

 _I can't even begin to imagine what possibilities such a device can provide to our world but I'm hoping we will eventually find out its true purpose and where it came from."_

18th Day of…d938xajsERROR DATA CORRUPTION DETECTED

SEARCHING FOR UNCORRUPTED FILES…

988th Year of the 23rd Millennium, Unknown Date

" _This is probably going to be the last entry I'll ever record, there has been a coup and the insurgents have seized the capital of Jasinco, they burnt the main administrative building to the ground and I barely escaped with my life._

 _I wasn't able to grab anything but my belongings and 'Research Project 21' or 'The Manipulator' as the testers and I used to call it._

 _Every member of the science team swore an oath of secrecy about the project and committed suicide after destroying all the research data as per the emergency protocol. I am the last remaining person on this entire planet with knowledge of the device and plan to take all the remaining information about it to my grave._

 _I can hear them coming closer, I've already buried the device inside a container near the great oak tree next to me._

 _If any loyal servants of the Federation find this message, please retrieve the Manipulator and protect it at all costs, the passcode is one-nine-eight-four-seven-six…"_

A gunshot can be heard in the background as the message cuts off.

Then footsteps, before another gunshot goes off soon escalating into a full-blown shootout in the midst of which a grenade lands next to the recorder and blows it to pieces, destroying any knowledge of the device known as the Manipulator forever…

…Or so it was thought.

 **OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

285th Year of the 25th Millennium, 10th Day of the 6th Month

 **Worker's Republic of Zalamis**

 **The Dignity's End (Forest)**

"This is the place…" Michael thought out loud as he glanced up from the map in his hands towards the edge of the treeline ahead of him that marked the entrance to the Dignity's End.

The forest itself was not anything special but it had interested him, since over a millennium ago, one of the last battles of the Revolution had been fought there and seen the death of the planet's former ruler: Governor Arceus Septicus.

Michael was a military historian by profession and worked in Jasinco's largest public museum as a guide, he usually hosted the trips to places where many of the 'Revolution's' most important battles took place.

'The Dignity's end' was one of several large forests that still remained standing near the expanding capital city, one of the reasons being the need to preserve the local biodiversity and provide sanctuary for many of the planet's native animals.

As he walked through the narrow forest path that had slowly been covered by vegetation as time had went on since most of the resources of the new government had been devoted to the development of industry and housing for the growing population, he could see what looked to be a large tombstone ahead of him.

The young archeologist stepped out into the clearing where the tombstone was located in; it had been covered by the growth of local fauna since many of the locals had given up on trying to keep the memorial clean of foliage and visible to anyone who visited the site.

Crouching down and removing some of the vines that decorated the stone tablet, he looked at the list of names of the men who had fallen in the final battle of the planet's revolutionary war before finally coming across the governor's name.

"Here stands the final resting place of the men and women who fought in the battle of Dignity's end, may their souls find peace in the world beyond." He read the text carved into the stone aloud.

Soon he stood up and took out his camera to document the scenery, a further look at his surroundings had revealed that the clearing had been left untouched and the bullet holes and missing chunks of wood could still be seen amongst the trees that had fallen down and rotted for the last millennium.

As he was walking over to a large oak tree his foot collided with a bump on the ground and he fell down to the ground face first as a result, breaking his camera's lens in the process.

He was about to see if the lens was in any way salvageable before noticing something peeking up from the bump on the ground he had just tripped on.

Crawling over to the spot he began digging the dirt off from around whatever was hidden underneath it all with his bare hands, eventually managing to get most of it out of the way.

After he rubbed the dirt from his hands onto the nearby tree he lifted his findings out from the small hole in the ground.

It was a small but heavy metal box.

'There's some rust here so it's obviously made from some cheap mixture. I can probably break it with a simple hammer, I wonder what's inside.' Michael thought as he looked at the password locked display on the front of the container.

He put the thing in his bag and got ready to leave, unaware that he was being watched.

Tzeentch, Chaos God of Change, laughed with mischievous glee in the distance as he observed the ignorant mortal carry away his artifact, waiting eagerly what matter of chaos he would unleash to the universe after the rest of mankind got their hands on it.

 **OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

400th year of the 25th Millennium, 7th Day of the 12th Month

 **Orbit of Zalamis II**

 **Prototype Hammer-Class Frigate "Shield of Retribution"**

 **Command Deck**

"Jump successful, Comrade Captain. The ship is unharmed" The ensign in charge of navigation confirmed to the ship's commander as the ship came out of FTL in orbit of the system's second planet, which had remained uncolonized in contrast to the overpopulated agri-world.

"Excellent work, report back to HQ. Tell them it's safe to come through so they can send the rest of the fleet in."

"Copy that, message away."

As the console operators worked their magic by providing the remaining Red Banner Fleet ships with the necessary info, the Captain, Cecil Burns was deep in thought about the possibilities the non-warp form of FTL travel would eventually give the people of the Workers' Republic.

'No longer will we be restricted by the confines of warp-drive travel, this new technology will allow us to travel outside of our system and explore the space around us and possibly even re-establish connection with other Federation colonies.' Burns thought as he looked outside from the observation window.

Unlike the officers of the old times when the planet was still governed by a single Federation appointed planetary governor, Burns was not promoted to his current position but chosen and democratically voted to his position from amongst the crew and he could be removed from his position at any time if the crew voted to do so.

This meant that his leadership position was mostly formal and the crew as a whole held most of the actual power collectively. This form of structuring helped prevent the rise of corrupt or abusive officers amongst the military's ranks and allow the actually competent ones who the people would willingly follow to assume leadership.

"HQ acknowledges. The first transports are en route."

'This is it then, the first of many future colonies of our glorious Workers' Republic.' Burns thought with pride as he turned to look towards the emerging portals from which several transports came out.

In the coming years the "Union of Workers' Republics" or UWR as it was more commonly known expanded rapidly to other isolated star systems, guided by the old navigation charts of the Federation and motivated by the desire to bring the rest of humanity under their ideological banner, either through reason or through force.

 **OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

623rd Year of the 25th Millennium, 9th Day of the 11th Month

 **Zalamis Prime**

 **Hive city of Gezdpi**

 **Underhive**

 **Apartment Building Nr. 122**

"Ma'am we need you to calm down and drop the gun to the floor…" The Commissar leading the police unit said in a slow tone in an attempt to calm down the crazed woman who was currently standing on the edge of the apartment building's roof with a gun pointed to her temple.

"The voices… they whisper." She mumbled before abruptly dropping the laspistol in her hand to the ground and grasping her head in pain. "AH! The pain! MAKE IT STOP!" She yelled in a mixture of panic and agony as the officers began slowly backing away from the pillar of warp energy that was gathering around the woman.

She screamed as the built up energy released in the form of a miniature warp portal that opened up in front of her and began spilling out small and hideous looking creatures that began attacking everything they could see.

The police officers were overwhelmed by the sudden turn of events and didn't have time to reach for their armament before being jumped by the warpspawn and slaughtered to the last man with the exception of the commissar who used his plasma blade to ward off any nearby creatures while at the same time using the autopistol in his other hand to aim at the confused woman who had spawned the portal.

'She must be acting as the conduit, if I take her down the portal should close down as well.' He thought frantically as he squeezed the trigger just as the woman turned to look towards him, the last sight she ever saw being the barrel of an autopistol as it fired before the bullets shredded her body and killed her.

A few minutes later the warp portal too shut down and after finishing off the last of the warp creatures the commissar walked over to the still body of the woman responsible for the incident.

Her eyes had an empty look in them as they stared towards the roof of the underhive while the blood slowly poured from the exit wounds underneath her.

"I'm sorry it had to end this way… You obviously didn't want any of this to happen but you forced our hand." He began as he holstered both of his weapons and closed his victim's eyes respectfully. "You were just another victim of this madness."

After calling in for a clean-up team to pick up the bodies of the officers who had fallen in the line of duty alongside the woman who he had been forced to kill to protect himself and the rest of the populace, the commissar looked down from the edge of the roof and down at the bustling underhive.

'I just hope something like this won't happen again, at least not anytime soon.' He thought grimly, at the time not realizing how naïve such hope was.

 **OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO**

962nd Year of the 30th Millenium, 5th Day of the 8th Month

 **Segmentum Pacificus**

 **Union of Workers' Republics' Space**

 **Workers' Republic of Gereadus VII**

Several people were forcibly lined up against a stone wall in the capital city of the UWR's newest member state Gereadus VII, most of the people accused were of higher social status, one even coming from a long line of navigators that had originally been navigating the first colony ships to the planet.

"You have been charged with engaging in counter-revolutionary activity and branded as enemies of the people by your fellow man for collaborating with the enemy, the punishment for your acts is death, effective immediately." The Commissar in charge of carrying out the executions announced as the firing squad next to him assembled opposite from their soon to be victims.

"Firing squad!" He shouted "Ready weapons!" The soldiers raised their ARP-44 railguns against their shoulders "Take aim!" The weapon sights were raised to eye level and aimed towards the guilty men who were shaking in their boots from fear.

"FI-!" The man's words were cut short as his head exploded into a shower of blood and gore while the rest of his body fell to the ground soon afterwards, this went unnoticed by the firing squad though who had already fired and executed their targets.

The men that comprised the firing squad were soon looking around confused at what had just happened to the Commissar before hearing a terrifying war cry as a horde of men in oversized blue armor charged towards them guns blazing.

The Alpha Legion had arrived… and they were out for blood…

But unlike their counterparts in the Imperial Guard, the men of the Red Banner stood their ground despite losing their Commissar and took cover to return fire on the nearest enemy troops, one of them using his radio to alert the rest of the local garrison of the immediate threat before popping out of cover to join his comrades in returning fire.

'The Manipulator' as pretty much everyone in the UWR called the device, had provided significant technological advances in terms of military armament along the many years since it had first been discovered. Having the possibility of snatching different technologies from the multiverse and refining it to suit their needs had allowed the AoTRB to develop weapons and ammunition that both worked flawlessly and were able to take down any possible target that might come their way…

…And that included Space Marines.

If the posthuman super soldiers that were the Alpha Legion could have seen beyond their zealotry to carry out the will of the emperor they would have easily noticed the fact that their numbers had begun rapidly thinning from the enemy's fire even before they had managed to down even one of their foes.

"Forward brothers! To victory!" One of them yelled "For the Emperor!" Another one encouraged his comrades as the Red Banner soldiers started taking casualties, the first of them being the most senior member of the squad who received a bolter round to his chest that blew a large hole into his torso after his personal shields failed, killing him instantly.

"Comrade down! Comrade do-!" One of the other soldiers began yelling before his head was blown up like a watermelon by a heavy bolter round.

"Hold the line! Do not let these imperialist bastards through!" The remaining NCO of the group shouted to his brothers in arms, taking the lead in the worst possible time despite the odds of survival.

Even as their numbers kept thinning, the soldiers of the Red Banner fought on with an almost fanatic fervor, they knew in their minds that they would most likely not survive this battle but they had made peace with the idea of dying for their people and ideas.

Their attention was soon captured by a chainsword wielding space marine that had began charging towards their position, not caring in the least bit about the damage he was receiving and only focused on taking down the enemies of the Imperium with extreme prejudice.

"Focus fire! Take that monstrosity down!" The NCO shouted as the remaining four members of his squad aimed their weapons towards the swordsman who was almost to their position.

"Die traitors!" The hulking mass of flesh and metals shouted as his sword revved to life and was about to strike down and cut the men behind the cover to pieces.

But, his attempt was halted by the fact that the arm that held the weapon had just been blown clean off by a heavy sniper round, embedding the fearsome weapon to the ground instead of its organic targets who had just finished reloading and turned their weapons toward the space marine before pumping his head full of .68 caliber armor-piercing-high-explosive rounds.

Soon after a Harvester-class heavy tank rolled onto the field, firing its 30cm cannon at one of the Predator MBTs accompanying the Alpha Legion's offensive and hitting it in the area under its turret and igniting the ammunition within, which resulted in the Imperium's armored support having its turret blown right off and landing right next to a group of the Imperium's finest.

The rest of the Predators attempted to retaliate against the monstrosity but found that their weapons were inadequate in breaching their opponent's defenses, meanwhile the heavy turret slowly turned towards its next target whose crew were attempting to fire off one last shot but failed as another oversized shell landed onto their vehicle's hull and destroyed it in a blaze of glory.

Behind the Red Banner's tank came the rest of the reinforcements that began pushing the Imperium's forces back and away from their encampment and towards the city limits, their enemies were not just any regular soldiers though for they were Space Marines.

And as everyone in the Imperium already knew Space Marines never run from battle, they just perform a tactical retreat.

As the wounded were loaded into the Rhino troop transports by the other half, the other half of the Alpha Legion's attack force provided covering fire to their battle brothers.

After retreating from battles around the contested planet the Imperium's forces would gather to their designated evacuation sites where they would be picked up by friendly transports and brought back aboard the battle barge acting as their mobile base of operations.

At the time the UWR had not known of the lengths Imperium would go to retain its place as the sole dominant power in human space and they had let the Space Marines leave the planet without any further problems.

After all the Imperium's ground forces had left the planet the single battle barge leading the invasion fleet had positioned itself right into the planet's orbit and done something so unspeakably hideous that it baffled the minds of many non-Imperium humans for a long time to come.

The officer in charge of the Imperium's invasion force had after much time spent contemplating and going through battle reports deemed the planet to be too much trouble and to stay on schedule with the rest of the Great Crusade's participants he had ordered the planet to face Exterminatus through the use of a planet killer weapon called a virus bomb which would eradicate all remaining organic life on the planet.

The unfortunate things was though that the Imperium was under the delusion that the Red Banner army's and by extension the Union of Workers' Republics' influence was only limited to this one planet which had been torn apart by the influence of the Warp.

The reality of course was much different and this alliance of human planets had already grown big enough to challenge the entire Imperial prowess as a whole in just a few millennia.

And they would do a lot more in the years ahead…

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 **A/N: As usual, the illustrations for things included in this chapter (with the exception of the spacecraft, which I haven't gotten around finishing yet) such as the weapons can be found on my Deviantart page.**

 **Hope you didn't mind the time skips, I found them a necessary evil since I had events that I had to cover in the past but not dwell on them too much since the main event will of course be the Great Crusade and eventually the Horus Heresy and beyond.**

 **Aaaaaand… to those wondering… Yes, The Manipulator is just the 40k version of the Tool Gun because I'm going to re-use that idea over and over again until it becomes so stale that people will start complaining about it.**

 **I think that's all for now, please post constructive criticism if you have any and don't forget to follow/fave if you've liked what you've read so far.**

 **For now, this is MarxistFIN… Signing out.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter II – Tales From The Front**

 **A/N: This chapter has not been beta'd because I haven't really been in contact with the person I had originally planned to have beta-read these chapters anymore, mistakes were made.**

970th Year of the 30th Millennium, 1st Day of 12th Month (Galactic Standard Calendar)

 **Segmentus Pacificus**

 **Arexis IV**

A ripping sound could be heard on the street level of the massive former capital city as a propaganda poster was torn off the wall of a collapsed building by a passing Imperial guard soldier.

"Worker! Extermination is the Imperium's punishment for those who disobey them; only you can help prevent this! Join the Red Banner Army and fight for your class!" The poster read in low gothic as the man looked it over, it had pictures of civilians who had been killed in orbital bombardments plastered all over it alongside the burnt surfaces of planets that had faced exterminatus.

"Private are you reading enemy propaganda!?" The commissar yelled as he walked over to the man and snatched the poster right out of his hands before throwing it to the ground and stomping on it until it became completely unrecognizable.

"N-no Commissar I was jus-" His sentence was cut short by a gunshot to the head from his commanding officer, causing rest of the squad accompanying him to jump back in fright.

"Let this be a reminder to the rest of you, disloyalty to the righteous cause of our Emperor will not go unpunished." The Commissar said as he wiped the blood that had gotten onto his boltpistol before he led his group onwards, some of the guards glancing fearfully at their dead comrade's corpse as blood continued to leak onto the pavement.

An enemy sniper observing the group felt sorry for the dead soldier whose curiosity had ended up killing him and began switching targets so that his crosshair pointed towards the head of the Commissar leading the group of Imperials.

"Say goodnight you cold-hearted bastard." The man behind the rifle whispered to himself as he squeezed the trigger of his M91 railrifle and fired, sending a massive 1.25 inch round soaring through the air and straight through the head of the enemy commissar.

The target's head popped right open, spraying blood, gore and bits of skulls onto the guardsmen walking behind him and causing them to panic and begin firing their lasguns in random directions in an attempt to hit the hidden enemy.

Soon the sound of a megaphone caught the attention of the Imperials down on the street just as it did the Red Banner's Marksman as the gunfire seized.

"Soldiers of the Imperium! Your command structure on this planet has been completely annihilated, the Army of the Red Banner outnumbers you ten to one!" The speech began.

"Your generals have abandoned you, they are only interested in conquering planets in favor of their so called 'Emperor' to these men you are nothing more than casualty statistics, lumps of flesh to be thrown into the meat grinder of warfare merely to satisfy their own egos! Abandon your posts and surrender to the nearest Red Banner Army patrol with your hands raised over your head, you will be guaranteed a humane treatment as prisoners of war, a warm meal and a roof over your head!"

After the somewhat short speech was finished, the group of Imperials looked at each other for a while before they started conversing amongst themselves. All the while the sniper was observing them, waiting for them to make their next move.

A minute went by… then another… finally the guardsmen threw their lasguns to the ground and raised their hands into the air before beginning to walk to the direction from where they had heard the voice coming from.

The sniper in the tower sighed in relief since he realized he wouldn't have to shoot anymore of the poor guardsmen who couldn't even properly defend themselves with the equipment they had.

It was later found through interrogation of the survivors that they were actually conscripts and had not joined the Imperium's military willingly but drafted forcibly after the Imperium had conquered their home planet of Kaurava I.

This group had not been the only one that had willingly surrendered to the opposing force, rumors of better treatment had reached far and wide amongst the ranks of the guard despite the efforts of the Imperium's officers to quell such traitorous thoughts.

At least for now, the propaganda machine of the Red Banner had proved superior to its Imperium counterpart when it came to motivating people, friend and foe alike.

* * *

58th Year of the 31st Millennium

 **Segmentum Obscurus**

 **Praedis III**

The Sergeant leading the squad of heavy infantry used his fist to signal his people to hold their position as he looked around the corner to check that it was clear.

He glanced from one side to the other, only seeing the bloodied corpses of the forward recon troops that had been sweeping the area ahead of the rest of the army, from the position he was in he couldn't clearly see what had killed them, only that they had several limbs missing which were lying a few meters away from his own position.

"Looks like the boys from the recon didn't make it, the whole street's filled with nothing but blood and guts." He reported quietly to the rest of his squad through his helmet's built-in radio while he turned to look towards them.

"Edge, Reid. Check the bodies, we'll cover you." He ordered as two of the men slowly walked out of cover and towards the open streets while the rest of the squad formed a firing line in case any surprises popped up.

"Looks like they were caught in a CQB with enemy melee combatants, their limbs were cut clean off by something pretty damn sharp since it went straight through their armor plating." Edge said as he crouched down to look at the bodies closer.

"Alright, regroup with the rest of us." The Sergeant said before turning to the team's LCP (Long-range Communication Personnel) "Send a message to command, tell them we might have a level two plus situation possibly involving warpspawn and we're gonna need some heavy support to purge it."

"Comrades, we have a survivor!" Reid shouted gesturing for the rest of the team to come over.

As they arrived they could see a woman lying against a wall as blood poured out of her stump of an arm, she was still breathing although quite erratically.

"Miles, can you stabilize her?"

"She's lost a lot of blood but I think I can, yes." The medical professional said as he walked over and began taking out his tools.

As the Sergeant and Miles stayed with the patient, the rest of the team spread out and took up defensive positions in case the hostiles that took out the forward recon team returned to finish the job.

"You'd think that we would have come across some planetary defense forces by now but so far all we've seen is corpses." Reid mused to the rest of the team as he scanned the area with his battle sight, his helmet's short-range radar telling him that the area was completely clean of any signs of life.

"I hear you, there's something really wrong about this place. I can just feel it in my gut." Edge said in agreement as he slowly switched off his safety.

There was a light rumbling sound emanating from the ground, which was caught by everyone assembled and they prepared themselves for combat accordingly.

"Stay alert, comrades. We're not alone out here…" The sergeant mumbled into the comms as he too took position amongst the rubble of the ruined city.

The soldiers of the Red Banner awaited, the streetlights around them blinked and sparks flew from them as some of them went out.

There were daemons in the city, they couldn't see them but were expecting them to appear at any moment from within the fog.

Suddenly… there was a terrible war cry and people dressed in an assortment of dark clothing and makeshift armor rushed out of the ruins and towards them, followed by hordes of warpspawn that screeched and snarled as they brandished their razorsharp claws and daemonic swords, awaiting eagerly to sink them into the flesh of mortals.

"Weapons free! Don't let them get close or we're doomed!" The sergeant yelled as he and his squad opened fire on the hordes of chaos cultists and daemons.

Their human targets were the first to fall, the heavy bullets of the automatic railguns easily shredding the meagerly protected followers of chaos' bodies to tiny pieces with the combined power of their speed and mass.

After all of the cultists had been sacrificed for the cause of the ruinous powers the better-protected daemons made their way to the Red Banner's position.

In the close quarters the men had to resort to using to using the shotgun function of their weapons, since it was better suited for the situation.

They fought off the dark hordes of the daemons with all they had, slashing off limbs with their bayonets and blowing big holes in the heads and torsos of their daemonic adversaries.

But in the middle of all the chaos many of the men were separated and fell prey to the sharp blades of their otherworldly adversaries who mercilessly tore apart their bodies limb per limb despite their heavy set of armor and blood soon filled the streets again.

Reid and Edge were both holed up behind a makeshift barricade of rubble and junk and tried to protect Miles to the best of their abilities while the Sergeant was leading the remaining members of the squad in the frontlines with increasingly less support as the Daemon horde began surrounding them.

"On your left!" Reid shouted to his brother-in-arms as he turned his weapon to take down a particularly small and nasty form of warpspawn that had attempted to sneak up on them and stab Edge in the back with its sword.

"Thanks man, that was close." Edge replied to his saviour as he continued firing.

"No problem, just keep your eyes peeled and we'll get through this like we usual-"Reid never got to finish his sentence as he himself was decapitated by the sharp blade of a bloodletter who had gotten the jump on him and screeched as it was now attempting to strike down his friend who reflexively raised his weapon without even thinking and pumped the lesser daemon full of holes.

Reid was so numbed emotionally by the haze of the battle that he didn't even notice his friend had died at first and only turned to look to his right at the corpse of his friend when his squad had already managed to hold off their position long enough for friendly reinforcements to arrive, along with them came armored support that began driving the daemonic horde back into the city with the amount of firepower they were able to field.

The reason they were being driven back into the city instead of outside it was so that they could be more easily contained into one area and therefore more easily be exterminated and sent back into what ever hole in the universe it was they crawled out from.

While he observed several Harvesters armed with flamers roast any daemons that got into their line of fire to a crisp before their bodies dissipated as they returned to the warp, Edge was still holding the decapitated head of his former friend in his arms, completely in shock at what had happened in a matter of minutes.

"You there! Are you the people that called us in to save your asses?" A tank crewman said after his head popped out from the tank's top hatch and turned to look towards the reassembled squad.

"That's us comrade. Name's Durzki." The sergeant said grimly as he stepped forward from among the people currently under his command. "And you must be our reinforcements." He said as he pointed his thumbs at the tanks that were chasing the scattered daemons back into the city before glancing around in confusion. "Where's your commander?"

"In that transport over there." The crewman pointed towards a medium-sized APC in the back of the colonna before closing the tank's hatch again and ordering his tank's driver to move the vehicle forward and back towards the heart of the battle.

"At least we know where we're going…" Durzki said as he gestured for his people to form up on him, including Miles who had by now managed to stabilize his patient and was carrying her on his shoulder.

The planet would eventually be cleansed of warp presence without having to resort to extreme measures such as orbital bombardment, much to the relief of the remaining civilian population who later willingly joined the new alternative to the Imperium.

* * *

132nd Year of The 31st Millennium, 1st Day of The 5th Month

 **Segmentus Obscurus**

 **Eridale IX**

 **Blood Axes' Waaagh! Camp**

"Dis 'ere shoota' iz very orky, meeb loike it." Warboss Gutspilla Panzeesmasha said as he examined the new weapon gifted to him by the Red Banner's delegation.

"We're glad you like it, we're planning on mass producing it later on and would like your boys to give a test run on the ones we currently have." The man leading the delegation, Anders Magnusson said with a smile as he exhaled some of the vapor from his E-pipe.

"Wozz de catch?" The ork asked with skepticism.

"There isn't one, we only want to see that these weapons work in the hands of your soldiers, whether they are Gretchin or Ork boys."

"In dat case weeb gotsa deul 'uumie, weez' 'eading owt tomorrow ter take ober da rest o' da planet from dem pointy-eared gits dat calls dimselves da Eldar." Gutspilla said with a hearty laugh.

"Excellent, we'll be looking forward to seeing your progress in the coming battle."

The human delegation left the Ork camp soon after, leaving the boxes full of weapons and ammunition behind them to be used by the greenskins in the battle between the Blood Axes and Eldar forces from craftworld Biel-tan for the control of Eridale IX, providing support to their preferred side when needed.

After first contact, the UWR had quickly found the Eldar to be an uncooperative bunch that couldn't get past their superiority complex and were openly racist towards the human delegation when the two had first met.

Suffice to say, any form of interaction with them had become increasingly rare after the humans had been forced to leave at gunpoint when they had proposed a trade treaty between themselves and one of the more close-minded craftworlds.

And from that point onward, the two groups had had a chilly relationship, with both parties either ignoring or shooting at each other wherever they might meet depending of course on which craftworld's forces they happened to come in contact with.

That didn't mean that the Humans didn't keep trying to establish contact with other craftworlds besides Biel-Tan, it just happened to be a teeny bit hard to find a craftworld that hadn't been either destroyed, become isolated, or openly hostile against everything that wasn't Eldar. That in addition to the fact that the massive vessels were constantly on the move and hard to locate.

On the next day, the men of the Red Banner were already set up in camouflaged observation posts in anticipation for the coming battle. They had orders not to engage either side unless their own safety was being threatened.

"This is outpost eight, all clear so far." One of the men inside a lonely outpost overlooking the future field of battle from a hillside reported as he zoomed in with his helmet's binocular function.

"Outpost nine, same here… wait…" The man from the other end began. "I see movement, the Eldar are moving into striking position. I think they're attempting to ambush the greenskins as they pass through the area."

"Copy that outpost nine, from here on out you are to maintain radio silence outside of emergencies, how copy?" The commander in charge of the observation force ordered.

"Solid copy command, commencing radio silence."

"Look." The observer at outpost eight gestured to his comrades as they looked at the mass of greenskins forming up on the field at the base of the hill.

He amplified his suit's speakers to hear what the Orks below were talking about, which wasn't really much consider the volume that the greenskins used when they addressed each other.

"Alrigh' ya gits nows lissen up, koz meeb be onlee sayin' dis wunce!" The warboss leading the ork horde began his address. "Weez 'eading owt, find dem pointy-eareded gits 'iding in dat forest ober der an killin' ebry last wona dim wif our nyoo shootas."

"Nows, me'm nub sayin' s'goin' ter be easy, but meeb knowz wun fing fer certain." He continued and the Red Banner's men listened intently on what the Ork leader had to say, as did the warboss's horde. "Weez orks an if there'z wun fing weez gud at iz findin' stuff an den killin' da ploppaz outa dim."

"Nows let'z gerrout der an gotsa propa WAAAGH!" He finished and the rest of the Orks joined him in the deafening warcry before rushing out into the forest to find their foes.

After a while the men manning the observation post decided it was a good time to finally let out a collective sigh of relief as they watched the greenskin force dissapear into the treeline

The sensors were notifying them that the Orks were heading to west where another surveillance outpost was located in and the Squad Leader in command of the unit manning the outpost silently hoped that whatever happens in the coming battle between the Orks and the Eldar that his own people don't end up dying in the crossfire.

 **Meanwhile at Outpost Nine**

 **Personnel:**

 **Sq. Lead. Jürgen "Jury" Beider**

 **Sr. Trpr. Elizabeth "Liz" Ferren**

 **Sr. Trpr. Rick "Raid" Keller**

 **Trpr. Mitchell "Mitch" Taylor**

 **Trpr. Aleksei "Xen" Mazur**

 **Trpr. Henryka** **Piontek**

"What the hell are they doing…" Liz, who was observing the scene muttered to her comrades.

"Setting up traps most likely, Orks are too stupid to avoid them because they see it as a challenge rather than a threat." Raid speculated while chewing on a piece of gum.

"Really? How do you know that?" She asked her comrade with genuine curiosity.

"Because I've dealt with them before, they are tough bastards and hard to kill. Hell, I once saw one of them shrug off the loss of a hand as if it was but a scratch, picked up the dismembered hand and just re-attached it like nothing happened."

"Shut the hell up and listen." The squad leader, Beider, who was in charge of the detachment manning the post shushed as he gestured for everyone else to look outside the small view port of the post. "Do you hear that too?"

"Sounds like… stomping…"

"Aye, the Orks are coming this way."

The humans quietly observed as their 'allies' of convenience walked past their position, missing the wall of the observation post by mere centimeters.

The loud snarling and stomping of the greenskins was unsettling to the human observers as they awaited for the Eldar to spring their well-planned ambush.

"FOR THE CRAFTWORLD! CHARGE!" A shrieking voice could be heard as dozens of howling banshees rushed out from amongst the trees, brandishing sharp swords that cut through the armor of the Orks like it was non-existant.

"S'da Panzey! Waaagh!" One of the Orks wielding a large oversized chainaxe yelled at the top of its lungs as it engaged the Eldar forces alongside its kin in brutal close quarters combat where only the strongest and fastest prevailed.

The rogue humans observed in awe as the two xeno armies clashed with each other, the small Gretchin going ahead and clearing the area ahead of the Orks from mines and booby traps with their own bodies. Next came the Ork Boyz who tested out their new shootas and sluggas on the enemy's foot soldiers with gruesome results.

The blood of countless Eldar stained the ground, as the new chain-bayonets of the Ork weapons cut through the sturdy and elegant armor that they wore without much effort on part of the Orks wielding them.

Even Jürgen, who was a veteran of multiple campaigns across the galaxy's lawless outer rim systems, winced a little as he saw a wounded howling banshee raise her hands to stop one of the greenskins but only ended up screaming in pure agony as the bayonet's blades ripped her body to pieces and he had to cover his ears because the xeno's amplified death screams were simply too loud and too horrifying to listen to.

Henryka, who was one of the more greener members of the unit actually violently vomited onto the ground when she saw one of the guardians stumble around the battlefield, attempting to hold his spilling guts inside his stomach while blood kept pouring out of the cuts and holes all along his body before the Eldar warrior was finally granted the peace of death when he silently fell to the ground and remained there, unmoving as the advancing Orks stomped over his body and crushed what remained of it under their sheer weight.

Realizing the futility of their attempts to hold back the green tide, the remaining Eldar began a tactical retreat with the one half of their forces retreating and the other half covering them alongside several rangers that hid in the trees and helped out with sniper fire.

"Da Panzee are retreatin' let'z git dim! WAAAGH!" The large nob leading the Ork detachment shouted to its boyz and ran after the remaining Eldar that were busy retreating to a safer distance.

"Looks like the Orks win this round." Jürgen commented as he watched the greenskins charge past the bodies of both their own fallen and the Eldar alike.

"Should we go outside and search the bodies for anything useful?" Liz suggested as she checked her standard-issue railgun's firing systems to see that they were in working order.

"Good thinking, maybe we can find some useful salvage from amongst the Eldar bodies." The squad leader said as he looked out through the port at the bodies lying on the ground.

"Not the Orks?" Aleksei, the team's heavy gunner asked, since he had already finished checking his equipment and was readying to head out.

"Nope, the Orks themselves don't make any useful technology from what I've gathered, they just salvage what's left behind by everyone else and personalize it to be more... suitable for their tastes." The squad leader explained as he climbed out from the top hatch of the observation post and took a look around his surroundings before doing a full sensor scan with his suit.

"Well, we should be done a lot faster in that case." Mitch commented as he climbed out after his team's leader.

Henryka was left behind to cover the team back from within the post should any trouble arise that would threaten their safety since she was the team's engineer and knew how to operate the various security systems within the outpost.

As the team walked amongst the bodies they poked a few of them with their weapons to see if they were alive and after checking they didn't move a muscle looted everything they had on them, including pieces of their armor.

"Doesn't seem like there's anything worth noting besides that the weapons we gave the greenskins seem to have worked beyond expectations." Jürgen muttered as he lightly kicked the body of an Eldar howling banshee who had had her arm gruesomely sawed off by an Ork's chain-bayonet in addition to being riddled with bullet holes.

He slowly knelt down to take her helmet off and loot it for himself but hesitated for a moment when he looked her over.

The squad leader shook his head to clear the distracting thoughts out of his minds and after looking around for a while he finally found the locks keeping the Eldar's helmet in place and after a while of tinkering managed to disengage them.

As he took off the helmet he glanced at the Xeno's face and was flabbergasted by just how peaceful she managed to look even in death, it was almost as she was simply sleeping instead of lying on the ground as a corpse.

The Red Banner's soldier soon turned his gaze away from her face towards the gem decorating her chest area and was already thinking of taking it as a valuable trophy.

He took out his combat knife to begin cutting the gem off for retrieval but just as he was about to stab into the base of the gem he could hear a gasp coming from the xeno next to him as she started coughing violently.

"We've got a live one here!" He shouted to the rest of the team who stopped whatever they were doing and came over to his position with their weapons at the ready should the banshee try anything.

"What… do you think you are doing… filthy Mon'keigh…" She asked with labored breaths as she struggled to talk despite her pain-clouded mind.

"Taking what is rightfully ours before the Orks do." Liz commented as she shouldered her weapon.

"Fools… all of you… you have no idea **cough** what you've started here…" The Eldar began despite her breathing becoming increasingly erratic. "Your ignorant actions **cough** have doomed us all…" She said before she started violently coughing and spazming uncontrollably.

"She's going into shock… I have a medkit with me but I don't know how it will work on Eldar physiology I wasn't taught how to treat xenos." Mitch said as he went through his supplies.

"She's going to die if we don't do anything either way, we have to try!" Aleksei shouted, she and Mitch looked towards their commander for permission and received a nod in response.

"Well… here goes nothing…" Mitch said as he stabbed a syringe filled with the green medical substance into the neck of his xeno patient and the effect was almost instant.

The Eldar stopped spazming and the team looked nervously what the substance would do to her and much to their amazement her stump of an arm began sealing up rapidly alongside the rest of her wounds, as with regular human patients.

The anesthetic also did its job and soon the xeno warrior closed her eyes and drifted into a peaceful sleep as both her mind and body went numb.

"Let's take her back the outpost, she may have useful information regarding the Eldar presence here." Jürgen ordered before opening a channel with Henryka. "We need a stretcher over here, we got ourselves a prisoner. She's unconscious but alive."

"Copy that, I'm sending one to your position now." The rookie trooper acknowledged and soon a levi-strecher materialized in front of the group.

Mitch and Liz both gracefully picked up the body of the sleeping Eldar and set her down onto the stretcher platform after which she was secured with straps and flown back to the outpost with drone escort while the human survey team continued their work on the remaining bodies, looting anything of value as war trophies or for research and leaving the rest behind as they returned back to the outpost.

* * *

199th Year of the 31st Millenium 29th Day of the 12th Month

 **Operation Rogue Dawn**

 **Sr. Trpr. Andreas Malediko**

 **Segmentum Ultima**

 **Dantris III**

"What've you got for me little guy?" The middle-aged trooper asked his reconnaissance drone as it landed on his arm and uploaded all the data it had managed to gather from its surroundings into his suit's systems.

"You did good pal, you rest up now while I take care of the job." He continued his monologue as the drone finished uploading the data after which it flew onto his shoulder plate and folded up into its stand-by mode to recharge.

The man unfolded his sniper rifle and checked that it was working before beginning the climb to the roof of the tall building in front of him through the long staircase leading there.

"This is Farmer one I've reached the target site, over." He spoke into his comm. unit as he reached the rooftop of the building and began setting up a sniping position there so he would have a clear shot to take out any members of the Imperial Guard that passed through the area.

"Farmer one this is Kolkhoz, set up and prepare for harvest." The man at the other end responded with a cool and calm voice. "ETA of your target is two minutes."

"Acknowledged, I'll report back as soon as I'm done. Farmer one out." Malediko said as he ended the call and set his rifle down onto the floor to retrieve the deployable shield generator that would work as his cover in case of enemy counter-snipers or return fire.

The generator itself was nothing special, it was a small grey cylinder with foldable legs that when activated would form a small barely visible protective field around him, it would stop all incoming fire including a missile if need be but would still allow his rifle to peek through it so he could make the shot on his target without problems.

As he picked up his rifle once more, he checked the digital clock on his HUD display.

It was time…

'Any second now...' He thought with a small smile as the image of an Imperial commander's head popping like a balloon flashed through his mind.

And right on time, he could see an Imperial Guard convoy drive through the narrow street below him. He used the X-Ray vision function on his scope to look for his target inside the vehicles.

Some of the chimeras carrying troops were decoys that only had a driver in them while the passenger bay was empty, but after coming over to the second last one at the very back of the convoy he could see several large forms within the passenger bay alongside a single smaller one.

'Must be the commander and his bodyguards.' He thought with glee as he zeroed in his sights with the head of the smallest form inside the passenger bay.

His railrifle was a modified version of the standard-issue M91, meant for taking out targets hiding behind thicker cover or inside armored vehicles through a bigger receiver and barrel that could accommodate larger, more task-specialized rounds.

'I have plenty of time, I'll be able to take out the driver first so my main target will become a sitting duck and easier prey.' The sniper thought as he calculated his options before moving his crosshairs towards the unfortunate guardsman driving the Chimera.

'Sleep tight sweet prince.' He thought coldly as he fired, his weapon silently sending its two inch round soaring through the air where not even a fragment of a second after it went straight through the armor plating of the Chimera and positively annihilating the body of the driver operating it, causing the vehicle to spiral out of control and drive straight into a nearby wall where it abruptly stopped.

"Bullseye…" Malediko muttered to himself in self-congratulation as he moved the sights of his weapon to his new target who had began scrambling in his seat at the back in an attempt to get as far away from the doomed vehicle as possible.

The Red Banner's sniper never gave that chance though as he zeroed in on the Imperial officer's head and fired, the heavy round going straight through the plating protecting the back door of the vehicle and through the chest of an Ogryn that had unknowingly gotten in front of the round and paid the price as a result as his guts were sent flying from its force without slowing the bullet itself in the least.

As for the officer the round was meant for, there was not much left of him after it reached his body. The force behind the shot was so massive that not only did it pop his head like a watermelon, but also tore apart much of his upper body as well, his carapace armor doing nothing to stop it.

When the lifesigns of the officer disappeared from his sights, Malediko sighed from relief before beginning to paint the rest of the colonna with his targeting laser so his comrades in the airforce could finish off what remained of the Imperium's precense in this part of the planet.

What he didn't count on was someone sneaking up behind him when he wasn't focused on his radar and he soon learned of his mistake the hard way as he felt a pressure in his back as a hostile blade entered through the back armor, stabbing straight through his shields and into his upper back.

Fortunately the blade missed his vital organs, still didn't mean it was any less painful as was indicated by his cry of pain as the blade was ripped out of his back forcefully.

Before his opponent struck again, in a single swift move Malediko turned around with his own combat knife in hand and struck without hesitation towards where his sensor showed the attacker was, resulting in an audible clang as the two blades collided.

Taking a closer look at the man attacking him, the marksman realized that he was just another guardsman, a lucky one but still just a regular guardsman.

'This will be easy.' He thought optimistically before the searing pain in his back reminded him that he was still wounded. 'Well, somewhat.'

The two men began circling eachother, Malediko twirling his knife in anticipation and his opponent attempting to mirror him but failing as he accidentally cut his own finger.

Soon the guardsman got frustrated with the anticipation and charged towards the Bannerman with his blade raised to strike.

'What an amateur.' Malediko thought mockingly as he raised his own blade to block the strike, trapping his opponent's blade into his own weapon's handle before using his other hand to punch the opposing guardsman in the jaw with an uppercut, sending the man flying back and losing grip on his knife in the process.

'Time to finish this.' The marksman thought as he sprinted towards his fallen foe who was still stunned from his punch and leapt onto him with his own knife aimed at the guardsman's throat.

The guardsman in question though managed to grab his hand just as it was inches away from slicing his throat and a struggle for survival began with the nameless guardsman losing ground every second.

"I don't want to die..." The imperial mumbled as the blade touched the skin of his throat.

"Sorry, but you have to." Malediko said grimly as he pushed the blade all the way down and severed his opponents windpipe, after which there was a wet gurgling sound as the Imperial grunt began chocking desperately on his own blood.

"Ma...ma, Ma-maaaaah..." Were the last, barely audible words of the delirious guardsman as his lungs were filled with blood and his heart eventually stopped beating, his body becoming still as a stone.

"Job's done, I better get out of here before his friends come looking for me." Malediko muttered as he wiped the blade of his knife onto the deceased guardsman's corpse before he tapped his comm. unit to call for a pickup.

As he waited for someone to answer on the other side, he tried to patch up his wounds to the best of his abilities with what little medkit charge he had left before packing up his gear and began rushing down the staircase he came through to avoid the survey teams of the Imperium that would no doubt be sent out after what he had just done.

'Weird, they should have answered by now...' He thought as he reached the ground and quickly rushed into the maze of alleyways in front of him, barely avoiding being seen by a passing patrol of guardsmen.

As he leaned tightly against the wall, he took a quick glance at his radar to see blue blimp not too far away from his position, indicating an unknown target.

'Comms are probably jammed, and I'm willing to bet that thing's the source.' The sniper thought calmly as he checked the charge on his sidearm before slowly edging towards the end of the alleyway he was currently inside of.

The radar started beeping more rapidly as he came closer to the unknown contact until he was certain it was within viewing distance. He was about to look around the corner himself before remembering that he probably shouldn't risk it since he had his drone with him.

After silently deploying his mechanical assistant he ordered it to check the street corner ahead of him while he watched the feed from his helmet's display.

The only thing it was able to record was the shadow of a tall figure approximately sixty-five meters away behind the left corner of the street and a bright flash before it was destroyed and only static remained on the screen of the marksman's visor display as the drone fell down to the ground as nothing more than a smoking heap.

Frightened by the sudden turn of events Malediko began backing up rapidly as he frantically looked around for an exit route, finding it on his right side where a door was blocking his way.

Quickly rushing over to said door, he realized to his horror that it was locked and he could hear heavy footsteps slowly closing in from around the corner.

He realized he needed a quick exit and took out his multitool, which he usually reserved for fixing his equipment, before using its plasma torch function to begin cutting through the door's seams.

Cutting through the door was a nervewreckingly slow process that wasn't helped by the fact that he was being stalked by an unknown threat of large size that could most likely prove to be his executioner if he didn't hurry up.

Finally after almost an entire minute of slowly cutting through the steel door he finally got through and he quickly proceeded to kick the door in before rushing inside the building and find a hiding place or another way out.

As he looked around the room he was in, he realized he was in a storage room of sorts, filled with metal containers, shelves and all sorts of parts that at first glance looked like they belonged in a car.

He didn't have time to look around further as he could see from looking at his sensor feed that the hostile contact had already come around the corner and was closing in on his location and decided to go through the door at the other side of the room to see what was behind it.

As he quietly went into the next room, he noticed it was pitch black inside so he activated his helmet's nightvision to see better.

Closing the door behind him, he began looking around before noticing a staircase leading downwards most likely into a basement of sorts.

'If I'm lucky there's a way to get to the sewers from there, I can lose whatever's chasing me down there.' He thought with a small sense of hope as he quietly snuck down the stairs and into the darkness below.

His sensor feed once again gave him a warning, notifying him that there were several contaminants in the air as he descended down into the basement, that was worrisome firstly because he already had a suit breach which he would be unable to fix with what equipment he currently had and secondly because said suit breach could cause his wounds to become infected.

As he reached the end of the staircase he could hear a loud crumbling sound from on top of him.

'That thing must have been so damn big it couldn't fit through the doorway so it broke the wall instead.' He speculated as he took a look at his surroundings once more.

'Good thing it can't come down the stairs though... I hope.' He continued his inner monologue before he had an idea.

Amplifying his audio sensors, he began listening for a source of water, eventually finding it in the form of a pipe behind the concrete wall on his right through which the water ran.

'Now I just have to find a way to get into the pipe... and hope it can fit me.' He thought as the stomping of the "thing" could be heard right above him.

He remembered then that he still had his breaching charges with him, they were small and meant usually only for making holes into doors so they could be broken down but combined together they could possibly be big enough to make a hole into the concrete structre through which he could crawl through to safety.

Seeing no other way out and with his chaser closing in, he decided to go through with his plan, despite the obvious risk that he would aggravate his wound and cause the infection that was no doubt already settling in to become even worse after he took a dive into raw sewage.

Before he began setting up the charges on the wall, he took out his remaining grenades and other explosives and put them inside several of the small containers he found on the floor and placed them near the support pillars holding up the roof above him before syncing everything up with the detonator trigger in his hands.

After completing his work on the support, he proceeded with placing the breaching charges on the critical points of the wall as per his training.

As he finished setting up the last of his explosives he could hear multiple footsteps followed by shouting in low gothic and the discharge of lasguns mixed with a terrifying roar of a beast that sounded like it came from the deepest pits of the warp itself.

While what he assumed was the Imperial patrol sent after him fought with whatever the thing chasing him was, Malediko finally blew up the breaching charges.

When the charges blew up the whole building shook and without waiting for the dust to clear he ran over to the hole in the wall, taking note that it was more than big enough to accommodate his size, even with all his gear on.

Fighting against the pressure of the water gushing out of the broken sewer pipe he made sure all of his remaining equipment was secure on him before jumping into the water and letting the current take him away to what hopefully was safety.

While he was sliding down the pipe on his stomach he didn't forget about the surprise he left behind and took the trigger into his hands before pressing down on the red button on top, detonating the grenades and other explosives while he was still within signal range.

Sighing in relief he decided to look down, hoping to possible see light at the end of the pipe but only finding that darkness awaited him as he slid out and fell into a pool filled with the nasty liguids of the sewer system.

He had managed to seal his helmet just in time before he fell down into the filthy body of water to avoid having to worry about the smell if it got inside his helmet, that didn't mean of course that some of the smelly liguid didn't get inside of his suit through the hole in the back.

His augmented strength helped him swim back onto the surface despite the weight of all his equipment (especially his rifle) and the wound he had sustained, with his nightvision still active he took a look around and found a ladder he could use to climb out of the water.

With great effort he managed to swim against the somewhat strong current of the sewage system and grab a hold of the ladder before beginning his climb up back to the surface.

Finally reaching the top of the ladder, he sat down onto the concrete platform to catch his breath and take a look around to find an exit.

After scanning the environment for a while with his eyes he realized that he had stopped at some sort of control platform where civilian workers most likely normally controlled the flow of sewage through different sections of the city.

It was mostly to ensure that if one of the pipes accidentally got stuck for some reason or had to be repaired, the people at the control platforms could quickly turn the flow of the water so it would go through the secondary pipe and the process could continue running normally.

'That means an exit shouldn't be too far away.' He thought with a newly revived sense of hope as he turned to look behind him to see a door standing there.

After the Red Banner's operative was finally finished resting, he stood up and took a closer look at the door before realising it was electronically locked.

'Power seems to be out as well, at least in this area... Oh well, better get the torch out again.' He thought as he once more took out his multi-tool and began cutting through the reinforced metal door, a door he would have usually gotten through by simply hacking it.

After a while of cutting he finally managed to get through and proceeded to step through the now open doorway.

Inside were hallways that seemed more like they belonged to an office building than a sewage management facility as he took note of the almost fresh-looking tapestry and dust-covered furniture alongside the occasional fake plant.

With both of his hands on his pistol he carefully observed his surroundings while at the same time keeping an eye on his radar in case any contacts popped up.

'This place is a damn maze, how in the hell did any of the people working here navigate through all this...' He thought with frustration as he came to a dead end, and walked back towards the hallway through which he came from and continued onward.

After what seemed to him like hours, he finally managed to find an exit from the office complex and into another area of the sewers where things became a little bit more simple in design.

As he kept walking through the dark and dull concrete hallways of the actual sewers themselves, he became increasingly relaxed.

That was of course until his radar started beeping again, indicating several unknown contacts ahead of him.

He slowly crept up towards his new targets, weapon at the ready and safety removed.

When he was just around the corner his audio sensors picked up voices coming from the area ahead.

'Sounds like... chanting...' He thought as he peeked a little at what was going on and was both horrified and disgusted by what he saw.

There was a small room in front of him which was filled with candles that provided lighting and within which were several people dressed in a mixture of dark cloaks with what he was guessing was the symbol of one of the "dark gods" adorning each of them.

'What the fuck are they doing...' He wondered before he saw the bodies of several people lying on the ground in front of what he assumed were chaos cultists, some were still alive while others had been horrifically mutilated.

Soon one of the cultists walked out of the formation and stood in front of his fellow worshipers, a large knife coated with dried blood in his hands.

"Brothers and sisters! We have gathered here today to honor Khorne by spilling the blood of those who are neither worthy nor willing to accept the the blood god as their master!" The deranged man preached as he tore open the throat of one of the people being sacrificed and the other cultists cheered as blood poured onto the floor like a fountain.

"The blood god demands blood to be spilled and we act accordingly! Without hesitation!" The man continued his rant as he kept mutilating the corpse of the man he had just murdered further by cutting off its limbs before finally decapitating it.

As the cult leader held the man's decapitated head in his hands and soaked his face with the blood coming out of it, Malediko finally had enough and decided to act.

He had one more flashbang remaining in his arsenal and decided it was finally time to use it.

Pulling the pin and releasing the safety lever, he threw the grenade into the room ahead much to the surprise of the cultists who watched it soar through the air dumbly.

Muting his audio sensors and getting back behind cover to avoid the harmful effects he waited several seconds for the flashbang to do its job before rushing in with his sidearm.

The cultists, who were screaming as their eardrums had been shattered proved to be easy prey to him as he took each of them out with well placed shots through their collective heads.

The leader though had somehow recovered faster from the effects and was charging towards the Red Banner's operative with his blade raised over his head and ready to strike just as Malediko finished off the last remaining individual cultist.

Malediko knew the rusty weapon would not likely be able to pierce through both his shields and armor but he wasn't taking any chances and shot the man through his head with the accuracy of an experienced marksman.

"Enjoy your new breathing hole, you crazy fuck..." he mumbled as he watched the cult leader lie motionlessly on the ground with his eyes rolled back and the hole in his head still smoking from the impact of the laser bolt.

Malediko then turned towards the two remaining people who were still alive, a man and a woman who were both gagged and still crying from shock of both the treatment of the cultists and the aftereffects of the flashbang.

He first thought of just leaving the two there as they would just slow him down but finally decided against it, feeling that it would be against his own moral principles.

"Thank you... thank you..." The woman mumbled to him gratefully as he removed her gag and began untying the barbed wire with which her hands had been bound with.

After he finished releasing both of them from their bondages he turned to leave from the scene before being stopped by the man.

"Wait, we want to come with you!" He said as he and the woman rushed after their rescuer.

Malediko turned to look towards them with indifference.

"I can't look after you two, I've got my own safety to worry about already in this damn place." He said as he turned back forward and kept walking.

"I used to work here! I know a way out!" The man yelled out.

That got Malediko's attention.

"Well why didn't you say so in the first place... lead the way then." he said as he gestured with his weapon for the man to move in front of him while the woman followed the the two in the back.

"You have a name, stranger?" The man asked, not in the slight bit intimidated by the Malediko's stature and his assortment of military gear.

"Andreas." He answered. "What about you two?" He said pointing towards his two compatriots.

"William." The man answered, taking off his safety helmet and rubbing his graying hair.

"And you?" Malediko asked the woman.

"Lilly." She answered shyly.

"Alright then, now that we know each other..." Malediko began as he turned towards William again. "What's the quickest way to the surface?"

"Climbing up the drainage shafts spread across the different streets of the city and out through the manholes, I'd suggest we don't use that thought. I'm sure you can guess why."

"Yeah... I think I do..." Malediko admitted, he wasn't keen on being found by any of the Imperial patrols or being shot by a lucky enemy sniper. "What's our second option though..." He asked worriedly while looking at his wound which had opened up again due to his sloppy patch work and was beginning to show signs of infection after being exposed to the sewage water.

"We continue heading through the different sections of the maintenance tunnels until we reach the end of the pipeline which is at the city's outskirts." Will explained as he pointed forward towards the dark tunnel ahead while activating his helmet's flashlight.

"Sound like a plan to me, let's go." Malediko said as the trio began their journey through the darkness and towards their final destination, which if luck was on their side would end up being safety.

 **A/N: Feels weird that I've just had this chapter sitting in my story folder for months now without publishing it. Almost like I never wanted to continue this or pretty much any of my other stories anymore.**

 **Anyway, I guess I should explain a bit about what's been going on ever since I last published anything since many people have been messaging me about it.**

 **I've been suffering from a mild to moderate level of depression for the last half-a-year or so and I only recently got it diagnosed by a psychologist. As a result any kind of creative spark has stayed pretty extinguished for the longest time now.**

 **I've mainly been busy and stressed out by studying and trying to find a workplace for my alternative civilian service so even with the little time I've had to write I haven't been able to produce much.**

 **For a while I was actually thinking of deleting this story (and some others) altogether and possibly never writing about it again because I personally thought that the first chapter was so incredibly fucking autistic with the way I've portrayed... well everything.**

 **But then I just thought 'What's the point? People have already seen it anyway, deleting it would be nothing more than damage control at this point.'**

 **So yeah...**

 **Hope you liked it, I don't know when I'll start properly writing content for any of my stories again but I hope I'll do so eventually at some point. No promises though.**

 **As always, this is MarxistFIN... signing off.**


	3. Goodbye

**A letter of gratitude and apology to my readers**

I would like to thank each and every reader of this story of mine who has stuck around even after years of nothing but silence on my end. Your words have encouraged me to try again and again to write something, to put my thoughts and ideas into words and sentences so that each of you can read it and hopefully enjoy it.

Unfortunately... this is no longer the case.

In recent years, I have simply put... lost the spark.

I no longer enjoy writing as much as I did in the years past, at this point it just feels tedious and pointless because every time I look back at my scribblings my perfectionist side screams that it reads like it was written by a spastic retard and someone whose seriously autistic that should be ashamed they ever published something so bad. But then again, most fanfiction seems like that to me these days.

In addition, when I first began writing I only really had to worry about putting the most minimal effort into school work since I had only began taking my first steps into higher education and didn't have as much work during the day as I have had in the past year or two.

Then... during the summer of 2015 I had some serious cases of depression and loneliness, I spent almost the entirety of July cooped up all by myself in the upper floor of our family's summer cottage, staying up all night and barely managing to get out of bed during the day, even then doing so only to eat.

It was one of the hardest periods of my life and eventually after I decided to seek help, a psychologist diagnosed me with mild to mid-severe depression.

When the summer came and went, I went to study at an open university because I didn't have any real options in terms of employment with my level of education and I hadn't managed to get a passing grade for further studies earlier in the year.

After the year of study in OU I had to only two options really since I hadn't even bothered to apply for further studies, begin my service in the army as a conscript or the public sector through Alternate Civilian Service, which is what I've been busy with since October of last year.

I got a job at my hometown's school where I used to go myself when I was younger, It was the only place I could get I had because every other realistic option was already exhausted by the time I could look for the job itself.

You would not believe how stressful working at a grade school is if you haven't experienced it yourself, I hated almost every day of it mostly because I simply can't stand little children and their antics. Like in the army, I didn't have any vacations besides the few national holidays when everything was closed or the ones I could use freely but had a limited amount of.

Sorry if that felt a bit like a long and pointless rant but I really want you all to understand where I'm coming from.

I simply can't force myself to do this shit anymore, and it breaks my heart that I have to do this because I really wanted to bring something new to the fanfiction community. I wanted to bring a fresh perspective to old ideas and hopefully inspire others to innovate as the genre as well.

As a last request I only ask for understanding that I don't do this because I have writer's block which will just go away or that I'm afraid of criticism or that I dislike fanfiction as an artform or some other silly reasoning. I do this because I fundamentally no longer can enjoy writing it to a wider audience that has hopes and expectations that wary wildly from my own.

People change and this is reflected in how they think, how they act and in this case how they write. I look back at my stories and see a younger, more inexperienced version of myself reminding me of how much enjoyment I used to get out of simply writing my random ideas down on a keyboard and seeing how people reacted.

But I grew up, matured and got interested in other things and over time I almost completely stopped even visiting this site.

I would like to give special thanks to two people who helped me with my stories over the years despite the fact I rarely stayed in contact, ResurgentClone, revan193... thank you, both of you. For sticking around, for giving me ideas and inspiration to keep writing through the years.

In any case... I suppose this is goodbye then.

To quote Dr. Seuss, however cliched it may be:

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."

This is MarxistFIN,

Signing off for good.


End file.
